Page 17 of Simon Says… Fight (Kate Morgan Thrillers #11)
“Yeah, I hear you loud and clear, but we also don’t know exactly what happened.”
“Yeah, damn it,” he muttered. “So, off to the hospital now?”
“Off to the hospital for sure, but I want to continue searching around here first.”
“What are we searching for?” he asked, as he looked over the gloomy interior of the building.
“Our man didn’t give me any specifics,” she noted, “but considering that we were talking about coming here and looking for information about fighting, it does interest me as to whether anybody was here with him. Maybe, if they were, they took off. What we don’t know is whether or not they were planning on coming back.
We’ve got to find a way to be sure of what’s going on here.
” Then she frowned. “I really want cameras.”
“Yeah? I want a Ferrari,” Rodney muttered, turning to face her.
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks, that’s really funny. But what would it take to set up a camera system in here to see if anybody came back?”
“Too much for our budget. So you expect them to come back?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, with a shrug, “but, if our killer was looking for this guy to beat up again, or to dispose of his body, it would sure be nice to find out.”
“So, you really think it’s connected?”
“How can I not? Just think about the whole damn mess here. There’s got to be some connection,” she stated, staring at him. “Right now we already have five dead men, severely beaten up, and we just found another who’s been beaten to a pulp.”
“Sure, but we don’t know if it has anything to do with it.”
“But how will we ever find that out if we don’t have cameras set up? It’s not as if we can set up a security guard here for round-the-clock surveillance or anything.”
“No, we sure can’t,” he muttered. “We need a small recording device even, but at least one on each of these three floors.”
She nodded at that. “We should talk to Colby and see if we can get at least that. In the meantime, we’ve got people out canvassing the area, looking for anybody who might have seen or heard anything.”
“And you know how that’ll go.”
“We can always hope,” she said, as she looked at him. “It is a unique location in town.” As she stepped to a nearby window, she saw a group of homeless men standing off to the side. “I see some people I want to question.”
“I’ll come with you.”
When they walked over toward them, they stepped back. She asked them, “You guys see any activity around here?”
Immediately they shook their heads.
“You guys seen anything that scares you around here?” she asked, thinking about Arnie, the old man in Simon’s boat. Immediately they shook their heads again. She nodded. “I guess you wouldn’t tell me even if you did, would you?” And once again they all shook their heads.
At her side, Rodney whispered, “I don’t think anybody here will talk to you.”
“They might,” she declared, yet a weariness filled her tone. “It all depends on if you use the right method of persuasion.” She looked at them and asked loudly, “Anybody interested in talking for a hot meal?”
Immediately all three men lifted their hands.
She nodded and added, “But I want the truth, nothing made up.”
The hands stayed up.
Rodney frowned at her. “You know you shouldn’t be doing this.”
“What?” she asked. “Taking some people for a hot meal and hoping they have information that might help? It’s not illegal.”
“No, but it’s probably ill-advised.”
“Ill-advised is something I do on a regular basis,” she declared, giving him a lopsided look. “So, whatever .”
A coffee shop was around the corner, so, with the three homeless men slowly moving behind her, she walked there, looked at Rodney, and asked, “Do you want to go in and get stuff, or do you want me to?”
“You can,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. “At least Simon will reimburse you.”
She snorted. “I wouldn’t even ask.”
“You should.” He grinned at her. “He wants to start dealing with the homeless, so maybe this is a good place to start.”
Shaking her head, she looked at the men and asked, “Coffee?”
They all nodded, smiles on their faces. They were so alike it was hard to tell them apart. They all had the same messed-up clothes and looked as if they hadn’t had a shave or a shower in days. Her heart went out to them.
She knew it was a bad idea, but, as she walked into the coffee shop, the waitress looked at her, held up a hand, and pointed. “They can’t come in here.”
“That’s fine,” she replied coolly, as she held up her badge.
“Oh, okay. Hopefully you’ll haul them away with you,” the waitress stated, her tone reflecting her attitude. “It’s bad enough that they rummage through the garbage all the time, but, when they come around, they make a mess and keep the customers away.”
“I understand that,” Kate noted, then ordered enough food for all of them.
The waitress just shook her head and muttered, “If you don’t make sure they eat it, they’ll go trade it for something.”
“Maybe,” Kate acknowledged. “We’ll see.”
When the food was ready, she paid for it and took it outside. She’d picked up coffees for her and Rodney, as well. As the three men settled in to eat, she winced as she realized just how hungry they were.
When the first guy lifted his head, he looked at her, sheepishly. “That building is very scary,” he began, almost a whine to his tone, and then he rubbed his nose several times. “We avoid it.”
“Meaning you never go inside, even for shelter?” He nodded. “You ever see anybody around it?”
He shook his head. “But there’s often voices, scary-ass voices coming out of that place,” he muttered. “It’s just bad news, a bad woo-woo place.”
The second man lifted his head and nodded. “Any time we hear noises, we scuttle to the other side.”
“You ever been attacked by anybody around here?”
The third man lifted his head and stared at her. “We try to avoid trouble when we can, but there are always punks, always somebody who thinks the way to make themself feel better about life is…”
She was visibly surprised at his diction.
He shrugged at her reaction, then continued. “I used to teach school,” he muttered.
“Sorry,” she replied.
He raised rheumy eyes her way and nodded. “Me too, but sometimes life happens, and you take a turn, and there’s just no coming back from it.”
She winced. “I guess it depends on how bad the turn is and how much you want to come back from it.”
“Again, that sounds easy and simple, but it’s not.” He shrugged.
“Look. I don’t intend it to be… This building, do you ever see anybody coming and going?”
Two of the men shook their heads, but the third one, the homeless schoolteacher, stared at her. “Why do you care?”
“Because of the man who was found inside that warehouse this morning. He’s in pretty bad shape.” She’d taken a picture of his face and held it up. “Do you recognize him?”
As they peered at it, squinting in order to see it, she realized they all probably needed glasses. If they didn’t have decent vision, they probably wouldn’t have seen anything outside either. She nodded as she looked over at them. “Do you guys need glasses?”
“I can see,” the first guy said, “but he’s pretty banged up so can’t see much.”
Kate nodded. “He is pretty banged up, and that’s why I’m here asking questions.”
“Nobody around here cares though,” the first one added. “They just want us to keep moving on. Just like these guys.” He pointed to the coffee shop.
“Are you guys the ones making a mess in their garbage?” she asked him, a smile on her face.
He flushed and shrugged. “Maybe, but they throw out food, and we need the food to survive out here.”
“I get that,” she stated, with a smile. “So maybe don’t make such a mess, and maybe they won’t have such a problem with it.”
He frowned and looked over at his buddies, who just shrugged as if that was a foreign concept, but maybe they could give it a try.
She smiled. “I understand. They probably do throw food out, and you probably could really use that food,” she acknowledged.
“But, if you don’t want them to get angry at you, maybe don’t do anything to piss them off.
” They just stared at her, and she continued with her questions.
“Is there anything else you can tell me about the building? Have you seen any businessmen-looking types there? Have you seen anything suspicious?”
“A businessman,… yes,” the first guy replied, “but it’s been a while.”
“And you didn’t see this man there before?”
“No,” he said.
“Another old guy stayed in there all the time,” the third guy shared. “He didn’t like staying there, but he was trying to keep his old dog out of the weather. So, he would take the chance and go in some nights.”
She nodded. “I know about Arnie, and he’s warm and comfortable right now.”
The third guy frowned at her. “More than we can say,” he replied.
“At least you have food now.”
He nodded. “Thank you for that.”
She didn’t comment on their situation, as it would be cruel. “Does anything else come to mind that might help me?” They again shook their heads, and she brought out business cards and gave one to each of them. “If you hear or see anything going on there, let me know.”
“Why do you care?” the first man asked, frowning at her.
“Somebody has to,” she said. “And I care about a lot of things.”
“If you really cared,” the first guy declared, with a snort, “you would see that the restaurant here doesn’t chase us away all the time.”
“That’s what she just told us though,” the third guy reminded his buddy impatiently, frowning at him. “If we didn’t make such a mess, they probably wouldn’t care, but we pull out all the garbage out and just leave it.”
“Why would we throw the garbage back in?” the first guy asked. “We can’t use it.”
“Sure, but then we leave a mess that they have clean up, so they get mad at us.”
The second man nodded. “It is something we could do.”
“I suggest you do that part, and I’ll talk to them about it,” Kate suggested. “Maybe with a little effort on your part, they might change their attitude a bit and see you a little differently.”